Editor’s Choice

The debate over gun rights and gun control stretches back decades, to at least the early part of the 20th century. It should, then, come as no surprise that there are quite a few recurring and oft-argued themes and positions in this long-running debate. Seasoned...

President Trump’s proposed budget includes, among its many cutbacks, substantial cuts to the EPA’s budget and plans to zero out global warming research. Naturally, leftists are agog, agape, and apoplectic. Dogmatic faith in the catastrophic version of...

The Atlantic recently published a bubble-bursting article that cautions young people against the “find your passion” advice they get from parents, from educators, from valedictorians, from commencement speakers, from motivational speakers, and from...

Illegal immigrants have broken the law. For many, that’s reason enough to want them all deported, and reason enough to oppose amnesty of any sort, including DREAMer legislation, and to go as far as arguing against birthright citizenship, declaring that the...

In the movie that put him on the Hollywood map, Matt Damon, as “Good” Will Hunting, lambasted a Harvard pseudo-intellectual for reading “the wrong ***ing books.” He then proceeds to inject garbage politics into the movie by citing Howard...

The advent of the information age has created countless new types of jobs and careers. It has also fostered new types of labor freedom for earners, including the ability to work from home, the ability to contract tech services from the other side of the world, and to...

If you’re a libertarian, you’ve heard this before. If you’re a reflexive basher of libertarianism who lurks in libertarian neighborhoods, you’ve probably used it. If you’re neither, well, read on… A libertarian Facebook page...

Back in the early 90s, I worked with a young female engineer who was a hard-core feminist and heavily involved in NOW (the National Organization for Women). We got to be friends, and she gave me a lot of insight into the movement. At the time, the rule seemed to be...

In a textbook combination of “late to the party” and “seize the moment,” a number of our liberal politicians have suddenly gone nonlinear over 3D printed guns. Their histrionics would be laughable if they weren’t so insidious, because...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay is the second in a series on the Drug War. Part 1: Science In the [first part of this argument][1], the proposal was made that medicine should be given all latitude to study medical issues, drug addiction being one. It posited that with...

After a couple years of constant exposure to Trump’s speeches, statements, off-the-cuff remarks and, especially, tweets, it behooves the prudent observer to avoid taking every word literally… AND, to avoid waving off everything he says as “serious...

Another summer day, another kid’s lemonade stand gets shut down by the government. This time, in upstate New York, where a 7 year old and his dad had the temerity to undercut the prices posted by vendors at a fair. Somebody narced out the kid, the health...

I was recently “evicted” from a closed political group on Facebook. It was both amusing and sad, because it was a group I belonged to for years, a group where I had made a good number of Internet friends, and a group born of the foundational site of my...

Scarlett Johansson, who by any reasonable measure has had a stellar movie career and will probably continue to do so for decades, recently got caught in the middle of a social justice imbroglio. The actress, who has since resigned from the role, was cast to play a...

What if I told you that Trump’s greatest asset, the most powerful tool in his arsenal, was not his Twitter account, or his brook-no-criticism supporters, or the swathes of Middle America that feel abandoned by the political and cultural elite, but rather the...

I had another of those “free markets suck” conversations the other day, one that evolved from conversations about supposed disparities in child mortality stats across nations, to socialized medicine, to the supposed failures of free markets in safeguarding...

One of the greatest frustrations for libertarians and others who believe that principles matter lies in the all-too-often witnessing of people who claim to stand on principle, but throw it out the window when it gives them an answer they don’t like. It’s...

The word “equal” is a biggie in the American political landscape. Thomas Jefferson famously wrote “all men are created equal,” and explained his meaning by asserting that each of us has “certain unalienable Rights.” Unalienable is...

Opinion

The Atlantic recently published a bubble-bursting article that cautions young people against the “find your passion” advice they get from parents, from educators, from valedictorians, from commencement speakers, from motivational speakers, and from...

Illegal immigrants have broken the law. For many, that’s reason enough to want them all deported, and reason enough to oppose amnesty of any sort, including DREAMer legislation, and to go as far as arguing against birthright citizenship, declaring that the...

In the movie that put him on the Hollywood map, Matt Damon, as “Good” Will Hunting, lambasted a Harvard pseudo-intellectual for reading “the wrong ***ing books.” He then proceeds to inject garbage politics into the movie by citing Howard...

The advent of the information age has created countless new types of jobs and careers. It has also fostered new types of labor freedom for earners, including the ability to work from home, the ability to contract tech services from the other side of the world, and to...

If you’re a libertarian, you’ve heard this before. If you’re a reflexive basher of libertarianism who lurks in libertarian neighborhoods, you’ve probably used it. If you’re neither, well, read on… A libertarian Facebook page...

Back in the early 90s, I worked with a young female engineer who was a hard-core feminist and heavily involved in NOW (the National Organization for Women). We got to be friends, and she gave me a lot of insight into the movement. At the time, the rule seemed to be...

If there’s any certainty whatsoever about the Trump presidency, it’s that, just when you thought things could not get more absurd, our teetotaling president comes through with yet another “hold my (nonalcoholic) beer” moment. Yesterdays’...

I will holler “Amen!” with the choir of much of the nation whenever President Trump is called a big fat meanie. He is. He’s an awful person. But that sentence might have been written the same way, minus President, if we are back in 1990 “Trump...

In an exciting final match, France beat Croatia to win the 2018 FIFA world cup yesterday, 4-2. French fans are celebrating wildly, while Croatians must console themselves with second place and a valiant effort by their team. The Croatian team did outplay France in...

A recent study about modern, open-plan work and office spaces provides a lesson in unintended consequences and the limits of behavioral modification. The study found that “open plan offices actually make people talk less,” an outcome that is the direct...

The early buzz is in on Trump’s nomination for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Anthony Kennedy. By most rational measures, Brett Kavanaugh is a superb legal mind, a good guy, an Constitutional originalist, and a solid pick for those who want to see the...

In grand “elections have consequences” style, Trump got to nominate his second Supreme Court justice this week. Before his pick was even announced, the Left had its plaints and protests locked and loaded. As in, tweets and placards with place holders and...

In the original illegal cross-country car race movie, The Gumball Rally, the Italian race car driver Franco, played with grand scenery-chewing excess by Raul Julia, informed the owner of the iconic Ferrari Daytona of “the first rule of Italian driving.”...

I recently mentioned Jerry Seinfeld’s fun little series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee as a prelude and “inspiration” for a discussion about the Left’s tolerance of some forms of prejudice. That same episode, featuring Bill Maher as a guest,...

The good, analytically-minded folks at Unbiased America (a worthwhile Facebook page to follow if you’ve a libertarian inclination) assembled some data that compares the top 100 CEOs in the world with the top 100 professional athletes. Their results? The CEOs...

Many are fond of trumpeting “Science!” as the basis for rational policy, but one look at the War on Drugs’ defenestration of science tells us that, in practice, such are the minority. This is nothing new or unique. There is a long and terrible...

Political Correctness, we are told, is not the bogeyman that non-liberals often portray it to be. Rather, we are told, it’s merely civility, politeness, and respect for others writ large. Horse puckey. Political correctness, and its militant sibling, social...

Apologies for going full-Godwin in the title of this essay (for those unaware, “Godwin” is a reference to the increasing probability of a Nazi reference as an Internet discussion continues), but Justice Kennedy’s retirement announcement has turned...

I just finished watching Season 1 of Hulu’s series The Handmaid’s Tale (yes, I’m a bit late to the game here, but that’s the beauty of streaming services), based on the classic dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. The story, set in a near-future...

Politico reported that members of the Democratic National Committee audibly groaned when word of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement broke. While the retirement was long-rumored, its coming to fruition at a moment that gives Trump and the GOP...

Nestled among all this week’s momentous news by and of the Supreme Court, we find the story of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28 year old Bernie Sanders acolyte who just upended the number-four Democrat in the House, 14 term incumbent Joe Crowley, in...

Yesterday, the Supreme Court finally resolved the long-running saga of Trump’s travel ban, igniting a wholly predictable firestorm of yee-haws from the Trump crowd and sky-screams from the Left. Trump’s defenders argue that the ban is not a “Muslim...

A couple years ago, I penned an article titled The Rise of American Fascism, in which I noted that the economic element of fascism (tight government control of privately-owned business), which has been a hallmark of our nation for a long time, is increasingly being...

… and The Right To Be An Asshole Hot on the heels of the Masterpiece Bake Shop Supreme Court decision (where a baker cited his religious beliefs to refuse to decorate a cake for a gay wedding) we have the unfortunate case of Donald Trump’s press secretary,...

Many readers of a certain age know and are fond of the movie Office Space, with its many quotable lines and memorable moments, but I have a greater nostalgia for a similarly named but somewhat older movie, called Head Office. In the latter, a young Judge Reinhold is...

Trump, in what can now be dubbed “classic” Trump style, has thrown the realm of international trade into chaos. He’s both threatened and enacted tariffs against our biggest trading partners, he’s ramped up already over-blown rhetoric, and...

The first presidential election I fully participated in was in 1980. I spent a fair bit of time watching the evening news, and learning from them that Ronald Reagan was willing, nay eager, to start a nuclear war. Furthermore, he had authoritarian tendencies comparable...

An under-the-radar Supreme Court Decision, handed down a couple days ago, offers another “be careful what you wish for” lesson to those who support government involvement in our individual interactions. The case, Sveen Et Al. v. Melin, centers on a state...

With Trump in the midst of a very consequential span of business (G-7, North Korea), and significant questions as to the effectiveness and prudence of his unorthodox style (to put it politely) abounding, it’s worth stepping back a moment and contemplating his...

Amidst all the brouhaha, folderol, bewailing, and Tier 3+ spinning in regard to the Masterpiece Bake Shop Supreme Court ruling (my take on it is here), we find two words that provide total clarity into the deep rift that exists between today’s Left and the rest...

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated ruling in the Masterpiece Cake Shop “gay wedding cake” matter. The Court found in favor of the baker, reversing both the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s ruling against the baker and the...

The number of drug addicts in the USA is on the rise, and opioid overdoses are killing Americans at rate where policy must adapt. Adapt, because our attempt to incarcerate our way out of this problem has resulted in what is the greatest jailing of people in the...

Like all proper thinking libertarians (No True Scotsman notwithstanding), I welcomed and applauded the recent passage of the Right To Try bill. Naturally, given that Trump specifically promoted passage of the bill in his State of the Union address, the left-o-sphere...

A recent Wall Street Journal “Best of the Web” column included an amusing bit of snark: Paul R. Ehrlich, Call Your Office – World faces ‘staggering obesity challenge: study.” For those unaware, Paul R. Ehrlich wrote a book called The...

The Salvadoran gang MS-13 recently splashed all over the headlines because, bizarrely, the press and the TDS blogosphere decided to go non-linear over Trump’s calling some of them “animals.” In an exemplar of the modern media’s tendentiousness,...

With the appointment of Barbara Underwood, New York’s solicitor general, to the position of interim NY State Attorney General, the public aspect of the Eric Schneiderman imbroglio has come to a close. As a reminder, Schneiderman, a self-styled champion of the...

The NFL (or “No Fun League,” as some have dubbed it) got caught between a rock and a hard place when Colin Kaepernick decided to sit during the playing of the National Anthem before games, to protest racism. A major chunk of the NFL’s fan base is...

Browsing channels the other day, I landed on some police drama (Law and Order? Blue Bloods?) that focused on a “fight club” atmosphere in the world of high finance and hedge funds. The trope is a familiar and common one: the high-testosterone machismo...